associate his own "brethren" with the hated Anabaptists, adding specifically that "as for Magistrate and authoritie/we acknowledge the lawfulnesse/necessitie/and singular commoditie of it/we commende it in our ceremonies to others." This denotes his full acceptance of the magistrate's claims and his advocacy of the established theory. The second pamphlet was put out in 1648, long after Cartwright's death, and at the time when this contest was at its height. Its purpose was to sustain the position the Presbyterians then held, by the aid of Cartwright's authority. It is entitled "Helpes for Discovery of the Truth in point of Toleration, being the Judgment of that eminent Scholler Tho. Cartwright" (B. M., E. 423(19)). This production consists of quotations from Cartwright's writings which touch upon the subject. Two passages will suffice to express his thought:

Now seeing there is a sword in the magistrate's hand by the doctrine of the Apostles; and that also which the magistrate must draw; I would gladly know where that necessity of drawing this sword can be found, if it be not in these crimes of Blasphemy &c. which I have set downe?

Again :

And therefore as the short and easie way to dry up the channells and Rivers is to stop up the head and fountaine of all, so the only remedy of purging the commonwealth of these mischiefes, is to bend the force of sharp and severe punishments especially against Idolaters, Blasphemers, Contemners of true Religion, and of the Service of God (p. 7).

Cartwright 26 was in substantial agreement with Calvin, Knox, and Beza, whom he quoted. As a sect the Genevans in England held rigidly to conformity as a theory, while they could not harmonize with the establishment.

John Hooper, the noble martyr who suffered in Queen Mary's time, is frequently mentioned as an early advocate of freedom of conscience. And it is true that he made a distinction between civil and spiritual obligations." The tribute due to God he would not have rendered to the king. Moreover, he complained

26" But the reformers, as well Puritans as others, had different notions. They were for one religion, one uniform mode of worship, one form of discipline or churchgovernment, for the whole nation, with which all must comply outwardly, whatever were their inward sentiments; it was therefore resolved to have an act of parliament to establish a uniformity of public worship, without any indulgence to tender consciences." (NEAL, History of the Puritans, Vol. I, p. 95.)

27 Found in his "Declaration of the X holie Commandments" (Hooper's Early Writings, Parker Society).

that the princes persecuted "the gospel and the gospel-like use of the sacraments." This complaint was not strange, since he was not in accord with the views of the church. But he did not go so far as to advocate the right of private judgment. He had no sympathy with dissent. Nothing seemed more desirable to him than that a good king should forward religious affairs as he, Hooper, saw fit. He says:

Among all other most noble and famous deeds of kings and princes, none is more godly, commendable, nor profitable than to promote and set forth unto their subjects the pure and sincere religion of the eternal God, King of all kings and Lord of all lords. . . . But the more this noble fact is glorious, godly and princely, the more difficile and hard it is; for the enemy of God and of all mankind, the devil, customably is wont to deceive the princes of the world so that they utterly neglect the religion of the true God; as a thing foolish and of no estimation, either provoke them cruelly to persecute it.28 Hooper took a prominent part in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs during the reign of Edward VI. There were some who thought it wise for the councilors to wait until the king's maturity before taking active measures in religious reform. Hooper spoke sternly:

Let those diabolical sounds and speakings of evil men nothing trouble your highness nor your wise and godly councillors. "As long as the king is in his tender age his council should do nothing in matters of religion." For those men's foolishness, rather I should say malice is condemned by the word of God, that teacheth how a king in his young age with his wise and godly council should abolish idolatry and set forth the true and godly religion of the living God. Thus declareth the notable and godly fact of Josias that followed the religion of his father, not Ammon the idolater, but of David nor declining to the right hand neither to the left hand. (Pp. 437 f.) The most that could possibly be claimed for Hooper, as also for many others of his time, is an unsettled state of mind relative to this question, resulting from his attempt to reconcile the Old Testament idea of magistracy with the desire to introduce reforms into the worship speedily. His belief in the doctrine of the king's authority over all persons and causes, both civil and ecclesiastical, was unshaken, yet his own position as a dissenter from the established worship made it impossible for him to appreciate all the logical consequences of his hypotheses.

28" An Oversighte and deliberacion uppon the holy prophet Jonas" (Hooper's Early Writings, Parker Society, p. 435).

CHAPTER II.

EARLY STUART PERIOD.

AT the accession of the Stuarts in the person of James I. the Puritans were sanguine as to the future of their cause. The king's former connection with the Scottish Calvinists, and his early favorable replies to their addresses, gave occasion for high hopes. Though these prospects caused them to rejoice, their later experiences occasioned depression. James himself was either flattered as being disposed to leniency or was really thought to be disposed to it. He was commended by the nonconformists for not being bloodthirsty; while at the same time his ecclesiastical advisers were accused of urging him to religious despotism. As he came so early in his reign to hold his now well-known maxim, "No bishop, no king," it seems probable that he was never really sincere in his protestations of sympathy for English dissenters. His son and successor, Charles I., was educated with great care. James gave personal attention to his training. This resulted in Charles I. being the most learned and the most stubborn ruler of the Stuart line. His high pretensions and bigoted zeal formed the barrier which occasioned the rise of Cromwell and the consequent explosion of the theory of the divine right of kings. It was within this period that England's first great advocates of liberty of conscience came forward.

Coincident with the beginning of the Pilgrim movement at Scrooby, John Smyth, frequently called the Se-baptist, was actively propagating dissenting principles also in Lincolnshire. He, too, went to Holland and made his home in Amsterdam. It is not my purpose even to outline the movement to which he gave rise, but to mention that from his party there seem to have arisen strong factors for the campaign against persecution. John Smyth did not himself live to escape from this self-imposed exile. He did not even effect an organization of any permanence in Holland. His own views even were not well settled. Though

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a dissenter, he was a university man of no small culture. The new light which was rapidly dawning on his susceptible mind led him from one advanced position to another with great celerity. From conservative orthodoxy he plunged into Anabaptist heresy. His name has been found signed to a confession of faith, consisting of thirty-eight sections. The thirty-fifth section concerns the doctrine of magistracy. In it he declares that "this office of the worldly authority the Lord Jesus hath not ordained in his spiritual kingdom, the church of the New Testament, nor adjoined to the offices of his church."

This expression of opinion makes it probable that from him has descended a line of active propagators of this doctrine. Of the associates of Smyth in this religious enterprise a remnant returned to London and there established a congregation. We possess but little information concerning them. John Robinson, the pastor of the Scrooby congregation at Leyden, felt it his duty to oppose some of their tenets, and so wrote an answer to their confession of faith, published in 1614, quoting from its pages. He reports them as holding

that Christ's disciples must love their enemies and not kill them; pray for them and not punish them, and Christ's disciples must with him, be persecuted, afflicted, murdered and that by the authority of the magistrate. That the magistrate is not to meddle with religion or matters of conscience nor to compell men to this or that form of religion; because Christ is the King and Lawgiver of the church and conscience.29

The original document containing the thought and a part of the sentences as quoted by Pastor Robinson is in Dutch, and has recently been translated into English by Dr. Müller, of Amsterdam, and printed in the Appendix to B. Evans' "Early English Baptists" (Vol. I, pp. 257 f.). This statement of Robinson is most explicit and satisfactory. Article LXXXVI of the confession of faith asserts

that the magistrate, by virtue of his office, is not to meddle with religion or matters of conscience, nor to compell men to this or that form of religion or doctrine, but to leave the Christian religion to the free conscience of every

29 Of Religious Communion, Private & Publique, Also a Survey of the Confession of Faith pub. by the remaynders of Mr. Smithes Company, pp. 128 f. (B. M.

4323, b.)

one, and to meddle only with political matters (Rom. xiii. 3, 4) namely, injustice and wrong of one against another, so as murder, adultery, theft and the like; because Christ alone is the King and Lawgiver of the church and the conscience. (Jas. iv. 12.) 30

They further declare, in the next article,

that the magistrate, so far as he will follow Christ and be his disciple, ought to deny himself take up his cross and follow him. He must love his enemies and not kill them; pray for them and not hate them; feed them and not let them die from hunger; he must visit them in prison, but not throw them there; he must not banish them out of the country, nor divest nor rob them of their goods, or appropriate them to himself. He must suffer with Christ, be scolded, slandered, flogged, beaten, spit on, imprisoned, and put to death with Christ, and that by the power of the magistrate, which it is impossible to do, and to keep the sword of vengeance.

This clear outline of the magistrate's duties as a magistrate and as a Christian was a conspicuous part of the heresy of this insignificant band of English Anabaptist refugees in Holland.

Pastor Robinson charges the writing of this confession upon Thomas Helwys, who became the leader of the congregation

3o Masson, in commenting on the declaration of faith put out in 1611 by these English Anabaptists in Amsterdam, calls attention to the expression, "The magistrate is not to meddle with religion," etc. He says: "It is believed that this is the first expression of the absolute principle of Liberty of Conscience in the public articles of any body of Christians. (DAVID MASSON, Life of John Milton, Vol. III, p. 101.)

31 The doctrine of Thomas Helwisse is preserved to us in An Advertisement or admonition unto the Congregations which men call the New Fryelers, in the lowe Countries, written in Dutche and Publiched in Englis. This was printed in 1611. (B. M. 702, c. 32.) He treated "Magestracie as his fourth subject. Holding that magistracy is ordained of God, and that the magistrate can be a Christian, he further asserted: "Hence it cometh that the Pope saith, loe heere is Christ, and seekes to force all to followe Christ with him. And the Bishopps they say loe heere is Christ and they seeke to compell all to followe Christ with them. The Presbytarie they say, loe heere is Christ, and they will constraine all to followe Christ with them, we passe by the most ungodly & unwise Familists and scattered flock that say he is in the desert, that is no where to be found in the profession of the gospell according to the ordinances thereof until their extraordinary men (they dream of) come, which shall not be, until there come a new Christ & a new gospell. And you to whom we especially write you say loe heere is Christ and you would have all to followe Christ with you. Now in these troublesome dayes which our saviour Christ hath foretold of, and, are now come to passe, wherein if it were possible, the very elect should be deceaved let all the godly stay themselves upon that blessed counsel of our saviour Christ who saith unto all that will followe him, take yee heed, behold I have shewed you al things before. Mark 13, 23 which is by his word, and therefore thither onely, must we go and followe no men." (Pp. 51, 52.)